Kamala Harris and Donald Trump raced through battleground states in the final hours of the campaign in their latest push to rally votes, as Americans prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday in one of the closest presidential elections in modern history.
The US Vice President said that America was ready for a “fresh start” and claimed that the momentum was with her when she held her last meeting outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, the biggest prize among the swing states that will decide the elections.
“So America, it’s about this. Another day, just one more day in the most important election of our lives. The momentum is on our side,” Harris said.
Trump also campaigned in Pennsylvania, promising his supporters in Pittsburgh a new “golden age” for the country if he wins a second term in office.
“The only way we can blow it is for you to blow it. I gave you the ball. I mean, you have to go and vote.”
According to Financial Times poll trackerHarris has a 1.5 percentage point lead over Trump nationally. But among swing states, the vice president has only narrow leads in Michigan and Wisconsin, while Nevada is tied, and Trump has narrow leads in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
Senior Harris campaign officials said they were on track to win a close contest and believed undecided voters were moving to their side, but they also acknowledged it could take days for a final result.
“We are very focused on remaining calm and confident throughout this period,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters Monday afternoon.
In Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, which has a large Puerto Rican community, Harris sought to shore up her support among Latinos after a comedian at a Trump campaign rally in New York made offensive comments about the Caribbean island and US territory last month.
“I don’t think people who disagree with me are the enemy. . . . We are fighting for democracy now,” she said.
Harris was supported by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive New York congresswoman, and rapper Fat Joe, who attended the rally and urged Latinos to support Harris. “Where is your orgullo? Where’s your pride?” the rapper said.
After days of vitriolic and angry campaign rallies that focused more on his grievances against his political opponents and his bizarre pledges to “protect” women, Trump struggled to reset his message on the economy and immigration.
In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke to female supporters holding pink signs that read: “Women for Trump.”
In Pittsburgh, former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, with whom Trump publicly feuded a few years ago, appeared at his rally to endorse him, while Joe Rogan, a podcast host with a large following, also announced his support.
“Voting for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper. . . “Your wages will be higher, your streets will be safer and cleaner, your communities will be wealthier, and your future will be brighter than ever,” Trump told the crowd in Pittsburgh.
His efforts to deliver a more positive message to voters were undermined when J.D. Vance, his running mate, called Harris trash during a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier in the day.
“In two days, we’re going to be taking out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” J.D. Vance said.
Meanwhile, the first election results were released in the hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, shortly after midnight local time, with Trump winning by three votes and Harris winning by three.
Some of the people who attended Trump’s rally in Pittsburgh traveled long distances. Renee Hughes, who is retired, traveled from Sitges, Spain, to vote and attend the march in her hometown.
“We have to take back our country,” she said. “We’ve become embarrassed. Trump is a real person. He gets us, the ordinary people, not the elites.”
On the other hand, Holly Gallogly, a retired teacher from Pittsburgh, said: “I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but in the last few months I have become hesitant because I struggle with hate speech.”
